Will the Blockchain be the DRM of 3D printing?

3D printing is an opportunity for manufacturers, notably to produce parts on demand. Some also see the threat as their industrial property. A file is lost and the spectre of exhibit reproduced to infinity. Cubichain Technologies, a California-based startup proposes to use blockchain as a solution for securing each print file.

Cubichain and CalRAM have validated the concept of a blockchain for 3D printing

Cubichain Technologies is a startup that is developing a system for 3D printing anti-counterfeit. His system is based on a private blockchain MultiChain (a blockchain based on the Bitcoin). A code (hash) relative to the room is stored in this private blockchain, which will allow the system allows to guarantee the integrity of the broadcast files and so avoid a weathered piece being produced. A few months ago, researchers had demonstrated that they could design one-piece hacker before its impression in order to sabotage the final product. Their demonstration had been to alter the design of the propeller of a drone. Imagine the effect of such sabotage on a piece of reactor or something in a car brake.
In order to demonstrate the relevance of its approach, Cubichain Technologies has joined forces with a company “3D” specializing in aerospace, Inc. CalRAM metal parts. Both partners have implemented the process imagined by Cubichain to print one-piece aeronautical titanium alloy, a one-piece that was symbolically been printed initially stored in the blockchain hash.
At the time of the era of the collaborative enterprise and where the industry 4.0 concepts are beginning to enter the workshops, this type of solutions will most likely prevail at big industrialists. If the encryption and digital certificates is the currently the most obvious for such actors, blockchain now arises as an alternative technically attractive and innovative.
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